Sabore Ole Oyie and M. Therese Hjelm The women and girls in the Ewaso Nyiro region of Kenya have to walk 6-8 miles one-way to collect water from the river. The same water that is used for washing clothes and bathing. The same water where the domestic animals drink and the wild animals imbibe. The water is full of contaminates and creates many health issues for both humans and animals. Since spring of 2010, Sabore and Therese have worked tirelessly to build awareness of this situation and the potential solutions. By organizing dozens of open houses, teas, and slideshows, they have collected more than $25,000 towards a goal of $50,000 to fund two wells in the Ewaso Nyiro region, which will create long-term access to clean drinking water for the nearly 9,000 residents. It will also provide fresh water for the numerous livestock and prevent the potential clash with wild animals. Because fetching water consumes most of their day, many girls don't have the opportunity to attend school. These wells will also free up the young girls time and allow them to get an education. Unsafe drinking water is the world's leading cause of sickness and death. Yet it is a problem we can solve. Just $30 gives one person access to safe drinking water. Please contribute to the Sabore's Well water fund, which will be managed by Blue Planet Network. About Sabore |  About Therese

Donation Highlights :: Fund Raising Update

As of December 31, 2011 we have raised over $26,200.00 from about 263 donors!! We are 52 percent funded but more importantly we have raised enough for ONE WELL!

DECEMBER 2011 - This month has started off with a bang!! Linda hosted a wonderful Afternoon Tea for us and we raised quite a bit more for the Well. Thank you all who were able to attend. We were back at the Center for Spiritual Living participating in the annual Christmas Faire. Received some nice donations. Had a surprise donation from a family we met in Tahoe in 2010 and reconnected with them to visit their childrens school in Oakland in January. Looking forward to that. Met the founders of We Care Solar at a dinner in Palo Alto and they have given Sabore a Solar Suitcases to take back to Kenya for the clinic in Ewaso Nyiro. We are so excited and he feels so honored. Thank you for all the donations we received during Christmas. We feel blessed to be the recipients of your gift-giving. Thank you also for the big donation we received while helping distribute gifts at the St. Francis Center's annual Christmas give-away. This is the 2nd time Sabore has been able to participate in this fun event. What an extra added treat for us!!

NOVEMBER 2011 - A neighbor held an Open House for us and we received some nice donations for the Well. Thank you Kay. Also hosted a Dining for Women meeting and received donations from a couple of the women for the Well. Was a nice and unexpected surprise. Attended an event at an art gallery in San Francisco where a professional photographer displayed her pictures from a project she just completed for Blue Planet Network in Kenya. She asked us to join her and have Sabore speak at her function. Was a wonderful evening and we raised a substantial amount for the Well. Thank you Rudi for including us!!

OCTOBER 2011 - received a donation from a wonderful friend, Margaret. Thank you for your contribution.

September 2011 - Had a nice function in Menlo Park which was attended by many friends. A woman we met 2 years ago showed up with a substantial check for us. Thank you so much!! Also received some donations via purchases of the BPN coffee table book.

AUGUST 2011 - We received a nice online donation from someone that heard about our project. Also this month a church in Santa Cruz gave a portion of their tithing to us. They invited me to one of their services to talk about our project and I was giving a generous check. Thank you to Rev. Angela and also to my friend Cory who made this possible.

JUNE 2011 - Received my largest donation this month from a woman whose father had a company in Africa. She spent many years there and I feel is just as passionate about Africa as I am!! Also had a friend buy 9 of the Blue Planet Network coffee table books on water to give as gifts. Thank you Robin!!

June was a special month. I hosted the Dining for Women Wednesday night group meeting at my home since the charity of the month was based in Kenya. Had a wonderful turnout, about 30 women came and we were blessed with a beautiful evening.

MAY 2011 - received a nice donation from my niece Rachel, who decided that she wanted to share part of her graduation gift to help fund our Well project. Thank you Rachel!! Oh and the neat part is that her gift was matched by a very generous man!

APRIL 2011 - Because we are close to funding one well, I took a trip to Kenya to work on our project. On my way over, one of my flight attendants, Terry, gave me a donation for the Well. I was so shocked - you never know where your donations will come from and it confirmed to me that I was supposed to take that trip! We also received a few more donations thru purchases of the beautiful Blue Planet Network coffee table book on water.

MARCH 2011 - March turned out to be a good month for us. Bay Laurel Productions put on a World Water Day event in Oakland and chose Sabore's well to donate some of the proceeds to. We received a check for over $240!! Thank you so much for selecting our project. In addition, I was asked to speak at an AAUW event in Los Gatos and a couple of the women in attendance have also donated money to support our project. Also, we received another nice donation from the jeweler friend.

JANUARY 2011 - I received some donations At the Well meeting on 1/21 and was also given a completely unexpected large donation from a jeweler on 1/22.

DECEMBER 2010 - Several people have made Christmas donations to our project in lieu of exchanging gifts - THANK YOU for thinking of us!!

On AUGUST 26, 2010, Sabore headed back to Kenya. His travel visa had expired and it was time for him to return to his family, cows, goats and sheep. All of whom he missed and I'm sure missed him. We are hoping to have him return soon!

AUGUST 21, 2010 we held our last fundraiser at a neighbor's home and we raised $840. We have also had other checks sent from prior events and a few more online donations - which is incredible.

Sabore completed his participation in the Global Leaders for Justice 2010 program at Santa Clara University. He has been inspired, has a greater vision, but mostly I think what he has taken away from his experience is that we are all people, men and women, and equal in every way. He spent 8 days with 19 women which was the most amount of time EVER in his life to be around that many women and for that extended a period of time. And in the end, his comment was, I never saw a difference.

The knowledge, experience and connections he gained from this class has already started to help us to obtain our goal of building these wells and creating an opportunity for so many girls to be able to attend school. It all starts with water - water first, education follows.

AUGUST 15, 2010 we had a barbeque at a friends home and their 7 and 9 year old daughters presented us with two envelopes that had money they took from their piggy banks to donate to the Well. They decided helping girls in Kenya was more important than another toy!!

AUGUST 12, 2010 we had a successful event sponsored by 2 women from Dining for Women, a wonderful non-profit organization whose goal is Changing the World One Dinner at a time.

AUGUST 11, 2010 we were linked to The Girl Effect network and received donations that were totally unexpected and so gratefully appreciated. Thank you to the person(s) that told them about our efforts.

Thank you all so very much for all of your love and support,

Water is life. Pass it on.

-Therese

Sabore Ole Oyie

Maasai Warrior and Elder Sabore Ole Oyie - graduated from Naikarra High School in Narok, Kenya in 1998 and was honorably selected as a senior advisor to his community and elders.  His education has played a major role in his ability to communicate in both his native languages, Kiswahili and English, as well as his tribal language, Maa.  He uses his experience and knowledge gained from both his formal education and his warrior training to educate the community on the importance of school and continuing many cultural traditions.  As second-in-command to the chief, he emphasizes youth education and economic development for his community.  He’s experienced the benefit of being sponsored to go to school, the critical need for education and the importance of learning so the community can be stronger and healthier.  He continues to live in the traditional ways, including wearing the traditional Maasai clothing, carrying hand-made weapons for hunting and self-defense against lions, elephants and other dangerous wildlife, and living in a hut made from sticks and dung.  He herds his cattle, sheep and goats, sometimes having to move them long distances to find greener pastures.  In addition, he is a Cultural Ambassador for Kenya.

Mr. Oyie has traveled with the Kenyan Tourism Board to Japan, Poland, Germany, Czech Republic, Sweden, South Africa and the United States over the 4 years.  He helps promote tourism in Kenya and talks about the nomadic culture of the Maasai people. 

Mr. Oyie is a tour guide for several local safari camps.  He enjoys taking clients on both walking and vehicle safaris pointing out the native wildlife and bird life, as well as enlightening people about the various plant life.

Mr. Oyie was recently elected by the elders to help with establishing a new warrior age group.  He is responsible for the selection and criteria for the new boys. It is a very prestigious honor to be selected as an elder to head up this exercise.

In August 2010, he completed a week long intensive program at Santa Clara University called Global Leaders for Justice which was sponsored by the Leavey School of Business and the Santa Clara Law School.  He was one of 21 participants from 13 different countries and one of the first men admitted to the program.  The curriculum focused on building leadership qualities and transforming individuals visions into realities.  Mr. Oyie is a founder of the Oldonyo Orasha Water Project in Ewaso Nyiro Kenya, which was established to bring clean fresh drinking water to his community.  By building wells close to their homes, it will free up the young girls time from walking long distances with their mothers to collect water from the river and allow them the opportunity to attend school and receive an education.  Mr. Oyie’s original project was to build 2 wells for his village but after entering the program at Santa Clara University his vision was augmented.  His new inspiring challenge is to build 400 wells for his community.  The immediate goal is to have 1 well and 10 girls in school by April 25, 2012.

Mr. Oyie has partnered with Therese Hjelm to raise funds in the United States. Together they have aligned with Blue Planet Network, a non-profit connecting water project funders, implementers and communities around the globe to more effectively create sustainable access to safe drinking water. As of January 2012, they have raised is over $25,000, halfway towards the initial goal of $50,000 needed to build two wells.  Please visit their webpage at www.blueplanetnetwork.org/sabore to donate online.  Mr. Oyie can be reached at saboyie@yahoo.com.  Ms. Hjelm is the local contact and can be reached at terez25@sbcglobal.net or 650-255-7221.

M. Therese Hjelm

My passion for Africa started as a child.  My mother’s college roommate was Dian Fossey, the woman who studied the gorillas in Rwanda and who introduced me to this beautiful continent.  My first trip to Africa occurred in 1997 and was magical.  It would take 9 years to return, but in 2006 I had the pleasure of taking my mother on safari.  I have had several more trips in the last 5 years, each one very special and unique.

It was in October 2008 in Palo Alto, CA that I actually met Maasai Warrior and Elder, Sabore Ole Oyie.  I volunteered to work an event for an African charity that was billed as Maasai Warrior training and Sabore was the man giving the demonstrations and training.  While at the event, I discovered that the charity founder, Sabore and Maasai woman Hellen Nkuraiya were to speak at a school near my home in Aptos.  I extended an invitation for them to stay with me instead of commuting from Livermore so early in the morning.  After their visit, Sabore and I began emailing with each other.  It was then that I learned Sabore was traveling to Portland to fundraise with a charity that, as it would turn out, my aunt and uncle were involved with.  Small world!!

In January 2009, I had a trip scheduled to Africa so I choose to extend my stay a few days to visit Sabore.  It was during this trip that I observed the hardships his village and other local communities endure because of the lack of fresh water available to them.  I decided I needed to help but was not sure how.  So in November 2009, I arranged for Sabore to come to California.  We scheduled him to speak at local schools and to other organizations about what it was like growing up Maasai, the importance of education and the critical need for a clean water source.  It was after he finished a talk at Castellija High School in Palo Alto that a student approached me with tears in her eyes asking if she could help and with that handed me some crumpled up money to contribute to a well.  That crumpled money was the first $15.00 for our well and is what gave me the incentive to take on this amazing and life-changing project.

I had a return visit to Africa in January 2010.  I again visited Sabore’s village to gain more knowledge and determine if we could drill a well in the area.  While there, it was decided that Sabore should return to the states before the 2009-2010 school year let out for the summer.  Several schools were interested in having him speak but there wasn’t enough time during his prior stay to visit them all.  Sabore returned, we scheduled him to speak at several events and we also held our first official fundraiser on April 25, 2010.  Many more followed.

The need for a fresh clean drinking water source close to the village is vitally important for survival.  The women have to walk 10-12 kilometers, which is about 6-8 miles, ONE WAY to obtain water from the river.  The same river they bathe in, wash their clothes in, the domestic animals drink from and the wild animals imbibe from.  The potential clash of humans and wild animals is ever present.  In addition, the young girls have to help their mothers collect the water and thus do not have a chance to attend school because there are not enough hours in a day.  This is the reason why I have chosen to take on this project and have aligned with Blue Planet Network, a local water based non-profit.  Blue Planet Network is my fiscal sponsor allowing for all donations to be tax deductible.  100% of the money we raise goes directly to our project.  Blue Planet organizes their own fundraisers to finance their corporate expenses. 

I worked in the financial planning and investment industry for over 15 years and helped found a company in 1992.  I left the corporate world 11 years ago and have had the privilege of dedicating my time to volunteer work.  My desire to help and create opportunities for others has brought me to this new and challenging (but rewarding) project – to assist Sabore with building wells for his community which will not only bring fresh water but ultimately allow young girls a chance to attend school.

As of January 2012, we are pleased to announce we have raised over $25,000 towards the $50,000 needed to build two wells.

Please contribute to this important fund online or contact me at terez25@sbcglobal.net or 650-255-7221.